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The world is getting smaller, of that there is no doubt and with air travel no longer the provenance of the rich and privileged, seeking new destinations to spend some leisure time has become so much easier.

Everyone usually has a favourite place that they like to return to, but we thought that we would suggest just five that, whilst being different, have a charm and character that will leave visitors with memories that will remain with them for many years. (more…)

There is rich, very rich and the Sunday Times Rich List and usually people in the travel sector do not often, if ever, get into the top 20 in the rich list, unless of course you are Sir Richard Branson. There are a number of others that mere mortals would consider to be extremely rich that get into the lower reaches of the list, names like Airtours founder David Crossland (£200 million), former British Midland chairman Lord Glendonbrook (£200 million) but they are not in the same league as Sir Richard with an estimated fortune of £4.52 billion, putting him into sixteenth place on the list.

From very humble beginnings when the young Thomas Cook in 1841 organised an excursion by train to take a group of 540 temperance campaigners from Leicester Campbell Street railway station to a rally in Loughborough, eleven miles away form this was born the giant holiday organisation that we see today.

The Abta and law firm Travlaw have been warning travel agents about the dangers of referring clients to claims firms seeking compensation for flight delays or holiday sickness. The warnings follow a spate of travel agents being approached through social media networks claiming to be from legal firms and offering money for successful referrals.

First we had the dispute concerning French air traffic controllers and now travellers are having their plans disrupted by a 24 hour walk out involving a general strike by public sector workers in protest against planned reforms in the social security and pension system.

The German National Tourist Office (GNTO) believes that the campaign to emphasise the ‘Holidays in the Heart of Nature’ could be one of the reasons for the increase of visitors from the UK which is up by 7.4% on 2014. The trend appears to be continuing as new figures show that in January, overnight stays from the UK rose by 10.2% with 300,000 visitors.

Travel broadens the mind and for young people it gives them the opportunity to meet different groups of people, practice language skills, as well as experiencing cultures which can be totally different to their own. Youth tour operator Contiki has been giving 18 to 35year olds group travel experiences for 53 years, exploring many amazing places with like-minded people.

It has been tried before in the Balearics and was abandoned after a year due to a fall in the number of holiday makers visiting the Spanish islands. It has therefore surprised many in the industry that the islands government is to introduce the tax again, which could, depending on the establishment stayed at, add up to £80 for a family of four on a two week holiday.

The anticipated getaway for Easter has been marred by the two terrorist attacks in Brussels, firstly at Brussels Zaventem airport after 7am UK time on Tuesday, followed by a blast at Brussels’ Maelbeek metro station. Confirmed casualties at the two places reveal that 34 people died, with more than 250 reported injured. The result of the two attacks meant that flights in an out of Brussels were cancelled, with the airport closed on Wednesday. Public transport in the Belgian capital was shut down as the authorities in the country raised the terror threat to the highest possible level, which also saw the Belgium-France border closed. This also affected Eurostar, but they did resume a restricted service on Tuesday afternoon.

Cuba is the largest of the Caribbean islands and is famed for its white-sand beaches, rolling mountains, cigars and rum. However since the revolution which saw the government of Batista fall in 1959, the island has been in isolation after sanctions were imposed by the Organisation of American States.

Carnival group is the umbrella organisation which offers cruising across the globe by big names such as P&O and Cunard and following on from a month long consultation they have restructured the sales organisation, which although does include a number of new positions and an increase to 46 in the team, which is an increase of 30%, there have been ten redundancies.